


Apres Moi

by sage_theory (papersage)



Category: The Tomorrow People (1992)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-02
Updated: 2010-03-02
Packaged: 2017-10-07 16:09:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/66788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/papersage/pseuds/sage_theory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is the worst thing you've ever had to do, and you do it anyway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Apres Moi

This is the worst thing you've ever had to do, and you do it anyway. You walk away from everything bright and beautiful. You look your mother in the eyes and make a promise that you intend to keep, because her hands haven't stopped trembling in three months and every noise makes her jump. Then you savor the tingle of your last teleport, the last time you'll smell the clean salt of the beach, the last time you'll shake sand out of your shoes.

You don't dare accept the hug he wants to offer. You know it's just going to hurt more, tempt you, remind you of how it good it feel to lay your head on his shoulder and listen to his voice, cool Australian accent sliding over vowels, tell you the things you wish were true.

Then you close your eyes, and wish you never had to open them again. You catch yourself sitting up in bed, just about to go searching for shoes because you can feel their fear, panic - feel whatever world-ending thing is breathing down their necks.

Sometimes you even get all the way dressed before you remember.

You tell your mom no more acting, no more dog food commercials. If you have to give up something you loved more than you've loved anything in your life, she has to give up something too. Quid pro quo and all that.

Then one day, later, much later, when you are very tired and your mother's hands have finally stopped trembling you wake up in the middle of the night and it's not a nightmare or a dream. It's just a hollow feeling in your chest, and you realize that you've been grinding your teeth in your sleep for a decade. You realize that you could have held on tighter.

You wish you'd hugged him, wish you'd been brave enough to stand the pain.

So you go. In the middle of the night with no warning, no reason. You throw on sandals and shorts and go. Just go. The thing you've been wanting so long that you're not sure what it's going to feel like when you get it.

It's bright, high tide's come in, and at the water's edge, there is. As though he never moved in all that time. Maybe he was a gargoyle who looked across an ocean for you.

He greets you with open arms, like the swaying palm branches embrace the wind.

You lay your head on his shoulder, and that same clean Australian accent is the voiceover to the best moment of your life. Everything he says, 'you're home' and 'it's okay' and 'we'll find a way to make your mother understand' and 'it'll be all right' - it's all true.

And you have to ask: "Did you know I'd come back?"

He says nothing, just smirks in response. And that's true, too.


End file.
